Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!news.duq.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.bctel.net!news.mag-net.com!freenet.unbc.edu!news.scn.org!scn.org!lilandbr
From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: Re: The word "Squaw"
Message-ID: <E07ytL.ILF@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
References: <327903FC.FB4@earthlink.net>  
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1996 01:29:44 GMT
Lines: 42


In a previous article, hthoskins@earthlink.net (Hugh Hoskins) says:

>Have heard recent discussions that a group somewhere is trying is 
>organize against the use of the word "squaw" in reference to 
>AmericanIndian women because they feel that it is a derivitive of some 
>languages' word for a private part of the female body.

I'm reasonably certain that "squaw" is derived from a perfectly normal
Algonquian word for "woman".  I don't know much Algonquian, but one of the
Cree (|nehiyawewin|) words I *do* know is |iskwew|, meaning woman (the
diminutive of it, |iskwesis|, girl, is used in a song sung (and written?)
by Buffy Sainte-Marie).  Of course, Cree is unlikely to be the actual 
source language for "squaw", but it seems highly probable to me that the 
Algonquian original is a close cognate and near-perfect synonym of Cree 
|iskwew| (the initial i- here being no more significant in the etymology 
than the e- in Spanish escuela--is this a kind of epenthesis, or what's 
the fancy term for it?).

While I am fairly sure the Algonquian word underlying "squaw" has no 
objectionable denotation, it is quite possible that in some times and 
places it may have carried such a sense connotatively, by the semantic 
inversion of the process whereby some of my acquaintances refer to women 
as "cunts".  Conversely (i.e. taking the semantics in the direction you 
say "squaw" is accused of), I've heard a few people refer to their own 
private parts as their "girl parts".

Another possibility is that in some *other* American language (I don't 
speak any of them, nor know enough to hazard a guess which one it might 
be) the term for "pudendum muliebris" (or some subdivision thereof) may 
be pronounced in a way reminiscent of English "squaw".  This would be 
sort of like objecting to the Church Latin word "scit" as scatological.
 
>Will we next erase the word "hysterical"?

Might be a good idea.  (Applied Sapirwhorfianism...)

--
Liland Brajant ROS'    		"Intla yajuanti quinitzquise cohuame o intla
P O Box 30091      		quiise se pajyo, ax quinchihuilis tleno."
Seattle, WA 98103 Usono		
Tel. (206) 633-2434  		(Aj aj aj!  Liland krokodiledas!)
